Neil Oliver delivers a scathing monologue on new GB News colleague Boris Johnson

GB News - the embattled right-wing TV channel which has broadcast anti-vaxx rhetoric, climate denial and sexist comments from Laurence Fox asking “who would want to shag” PoliticsJOE journalist Ava Evans – has attracted controversy once more after announcing that former prime minister Boris Johnson is to join its presenting roster in the new year.

And it seems even some of his future colleagues aren’t too happy with the news.

Author and historian Neil Oliver, whose previous contributions to UK political discourse include ranting about “woke” Glastonbury; admitting he doesn’t know what’s happening in Ukraine before talking about Ukraine; spouting an “antisemitic” conspiracy theory about a “silent war” to impose a “one-world government”; and claiming he’d happily catch Covid-19 “for the sake of freedom”, made his feelings known on Saturday night.

Just one day prior, GB News had announced that Johnson – the ex-Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP shunned over Partygate and misleading parliamentarians, among other scandals – would soon present a new series on the channel “showcasing the power of Britain around the world”.

The Tory politician added in a video posted to Twitter/X that he was “excited” to join the “remarkable, new TV channel” to give his “unvarnished views” on issues such as Russia, China and the war in Ukraine.

Yet on his show Neil Oliver Live, Oliver used a monologue to take aim at Johnson as part of a rant about “dreadful people in charge” who “suffer no consequences”.

He continued: “I also say those dreadful people are invariably cowards, which partly explains why they do those dreadful things, or at least stand by while dreadful events unfold.

“Another British former prime minister, Boris Johnson, locked down a country in lockstep with all the rest, leading to death and economic destruction on an unmeasured scale, and pushed medical products that were, unquestionably, neither safe nor effective – not even in terms of Big Pharma’s own self-regulatory policies – on millions of people, children included.”

Yes, that is all one sentence.

“It was the Nato bag carrier who scuppered hopes of an early peace deal in Ukraine. Like Blair, like the Clintons, like Obama and the rest, he’s now on the luxury lecture sector, trousering a fortune along the way.

“The wages of sin, as it turns out, come in seven figures, or eight,” Oliver vented.

Crikey.

And as a quick factcheck to cover all of Oliver’s rhetoric: the safety of coronavirus jabs for both adults and children was “extensively reviewed” by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), while analysis from the Office for National Statistics found Covid vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation rose from 52 per cent after the first dose to 77 per cent on the third.

On Ukraine, Johnson actually warned against forcing Ukraine into accepting a “bad peace deal”, and branded Russian president Vladimir Putin a “crocodile” who cannot be trusted.

Oliver’s remarks, though, have people wondering just how tense the atmosphere will be when they both work for the same employer in 2024:

Oliver isn’t the only GB News host to slam the appointment, either, as Monty Python star John Cleese – whose 10-part series The Dinosaur Hour kicks off on the channel on Sunday night – said he could “hardly believe” the broadcaster is giving a “proven serial liar his own programme”.

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